Windows won't boot.

Alkers

Went to turn on my pc this morning. All went fine passed the windows load-up screen. Then just before the screen where you click on your username I got the following error message:
"While trying to update the current password, the return status indicates the current value to be incorrect." or something to that effect (only flashes for a second before the pc restarts and does the same again.
I only have one user in XP and that doesn't have a password.
Any ideas?
Spec in sig.
Thanks

Ruu_Old

Will it boot into Safe Mode?

Ghost Train

press F8 a few times before windows starts loading to get the start up menu, then select safe mode and see if you can get into windows safe mode.

If you can you might be able to change some of the user settings(maybe add a new user) in control panel, or maybe restore windows to an earlier restore check point

Alkers

Just tried that, got the same error message but had a little bit longer to read it. Updated it in my previous post.

Ghost Train

if it not even booting to safe mode it's not a good sign, might be time to start looking for your restore or windows install cds.

Sounds like some windows files have become currupt, sounds like this problem http://www.askdavetaylor.com/lsassexe_system_error_every_time_i_boot_windows.html
It's not the sasser thing though that they talk about, definitely something different, can't see any solution other than a reinstall

Capt'n Midnight

don't forget there is an administrator and guest account there too somewhere

if you have played around/restored some registry files the password may be out of synch between the files, in which case you can use a password reset disk to blank the password - but that had different errors to this

try booting up with XP cd and going into recovery console, that confirm if the password is ok and some other registry stuff, but you are probably looking at a reinstall over the top, and the lovely bit about that is it wipes out your system restore so you can't then roll back to just before the problem happened.

if only there was something like ASR for home users, and that didn't need to wipe the partition

Alkers

Had another go at this. Got as far as being asked for the administrator password after trying to repair a windows installation. Is there a default password or what? I didn't have one set up

Capt'n Midnight

it should be blank if you didn't setup one (default is blank)

Alkers

Thats what I thought but that comes up as incorrect.
So am I stuck with a format?

Capt'n Midnight

No NO!
Format is a last resort as it implies loosing all your data.

You can always reinstall a clean copy of windows in a different folder and if you can't repair the original copy you could just rename the old windows folder and the old program files folders so you could do a clean install in the c:\windows folder next time and not inherit so much

Try looking for the password reset disk, it will get you past that part of the install/repair BUT it's a likely sign that the registry is FUBAR and if you did reinstall over the top there is a good chance you would just inherit the junk.

If you had made any backups then you could try a restore or repair

Alkers

I don't have much data on the disk - I have it on another hdd - only applications installed on the raptor so it's not too bad. I'm more worried about the cause of this problem as I re-installed only about 2weeks ago.
How would I go about looking for a password reset disk? It is a bootable disk or what? Is the initial error message also talking about the administrator password?

Capt'n Midnight

If you had a backup of the system or even the system state or the registry files then try a repair first

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ can be used to reset the admin password but chances are the registry is sub-optimal and a reinstall won't solve

Alkers

I can't do a repair, when I select that it asks me for the adminsitrator password, which I had never set-up.

tippguy2

1. Start your computer with the Windows CD-ROM if your computer can start from the CD-ROM drive.
2. When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press R to select the repair option.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the Windows installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
4. Type the administrator password when you are prompted to do so.

NOTE: If no administrator password exists, press ENTER.
5. At the command prompt, on the drive where Windows is installed, type chkdsk /r, and then press ENTER.
6. At the command prompt, type exit, and then press ENTER to restart your computer

Alkers

Thanks for the reply - that is what I have been trying to do but when prompted for the administrator password, leaving it blank, it claims this is the incorrect password. I definately did not set a password at any stage during the install.

tippguy2

looks like u will have to reinstall windows (possibly reformat) once u have windows running again use this fix to solve the administrator bull****e in future i think serrvice pack 2 does not have this prob ...


There is a bug in WinXP there prevents you from using Recovery Console

even though the right password is typed when prompted....

So, here's the trick.

2. Enable Administrator to Log On Automatically in Recovery Console

3. Reboot into WinXP.

4. Select Start | Run, then type regedit Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Setup \RecoveryConsole Change the SecurityLevel DWORD value data to 1.

5. Reboot the PC

Alkers

Latest: Installed Xp again on the raptor, alongside the existing installation. Can boot into the "new" windows fine. Am able to access all my data etc and I'm checking both disks now. Now that I have access to the "old" system files etc how would I go about fixing this or should I just start afresh? I only don't want to reinstall as I'd rather not spend the remainder of xmas day installing drivers etc!
Currently it sees the two installations when booting and the error message still shows when I choose the "old" installation.

alan4cult

This is error 1323L ERROR_WRONG_PASSWORD by the way. I had it once but took action by reinstalling windows. Have you tried booting from a format disk created on another XP machine? Create one by formatting a floppy then boot. Make sure your BIOS is set to boot from FLOPPY (usually is).